Types of Animation in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac

Learn about different animation types in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac.

Author:Geetesh Bajaj

Product/Version: PowerPoint 2011 for Mac

OS: Mac OS X

Date Created: July 03, 2012Last Updated: July 03, 2012

You have already learned what animation
is, and where you should draw the limits as far as animation goes. In addition, we looked at how you can
add animation to a slide
object. In this tutorial, we move further to explore the several types of animation available in
PowerPoint 2011. When we say "several types", we do not
mean the animation effects themselves but the several types wherein these effects can be categorized.
Figure 1 shows the different types of Animation Effects within the Animations tab of the
Ribbon.

Figure 1: Animation types in PowerPoint 2011

Since Figure 1 spans the entire interface area in PowerPoint, we split the width of the
Ribbon into two, so that you can see all options clearly. Animations in PowerPoint 2011 are
divided into four categories -- these are explained below, as marked in Figure 1, above:

Entrance Effects: Used to introduce a slide object within a slide. If a slide was a room, and you were a
slide object -- then an entrance animation will be akin to you entering the room. Learn more about Entrance Effects
in our Entrance Effects for
Animations in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac tutorial.

EmphasisEffects: Animate the slide objects that are already present on a slide. Using
the same analogy as we used for Entrance animations, you would already be in the room, and would move from one
area in the room to another -- this would be akin to an Emphasis animation. To know more about Emphasis Effects, refer to our
Emphasis Effects for Animations
in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac tutorial.

Motion Paths are similar to EmphasisEffects since they are typically
used to move slide objects already on a slide, although they can also make objects enter and exit the slide area. Motion path
animations cause movement set on a path, and this path could be a circle, a line, or any other custom path. We have explained
the Motion Paths in detail in our
Motion Path Animations
in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac tutorial.

What's important to realize is that the same slide object can have all four animation types added to it and set to play one
after the other (or even at the same time in some instances) -- this sort of sequencing is controlled by animation events such
as On Click, With Previous, and After Previous -- we explain these events in
our Animation Events tutorial.
Another concept that you need to know is how to control the
speed of the animation.

Night Sky Starlit Backgrounds

The ZIP file that you will download contains five Night Sky Starlit Backgrounds in three resolutions: Full Size: 4000x2250 pixels (16:9), Widescreen Size: 1365x768 pixels (16:9), and Standard Size: 1024x768 (4:3). Also included are five PowerPoint Presentations with Night Sky Starlit Backgrounds, set to work with the Morph transition. Yes, these background designs can also animate between slides using PowerPoint's Morph transition.